We had really nice weather the two days we were there. Here is the first morning.....walking to find breakfast.
You would think that if your parents care about you they would tell you to adjust your hair....
Amsterdam is known for being a bike city....and they are NOT kidding.
You know a place is off to a good start when there is a foamy fountain at 9am.
Lots of great and exciting bikes everywhere. Here is a snazzy pink one. (see future post for all the loveliness of bikes)
View over one of the many canals.
House boats are rented and owned just like apartments here.
Ann Frank statue around the corner from the Ann Frank house where she and her family lived in the attic.
Horse-drawn carriage, check.
House boat that looks like it's from the Amazon, check.
Usually it's 'how much is that doggie in the window', but this doggie is wondering how much is that bistec in the window.
After walking around for the morning we took a bike tour from Mike's Bike Tours. Highly recommend it if you go there. On a bike is of course the best way to see this city (or any for that matter). Here is their hippie back room/bike repair studio.
Next door was an equally hippie comic book type store that we checked out while we waited for our time slot. This is that the world thinks of when they think of America:
Crazy bike town means crazy bike accessories.
This clock tower has the symbol of Amsterdam the three Xs. Each X represents something that the Amsterdam people are cabable of surviving....something like floods, plagues, and famine. Google it.
Then we went to the big park in town, like central park. Apparently it was pledge week at all Amsterdam Universities. I thought greek week was an American invention, but apparently it's everywhere now. Earlier in the day we saw girls in bright yellow doing cheers. Here are a team of boys runnign in flipflops and speedos. Very tricky. Of course we cheered and rang our bike bells for them. Moral support, you know.
Mum and Dad on their bikes.
This is very un-Dutch. Can't remember where they said no bikes, but i think it must have been either a bathroom or meaning in the canal.
This fancy bike accessory looks like a row boat that you attach to the front of your bike. Great to hold groceries, dogs, and kids - with seatbelts! Like most other European cities, it's completely ok to leave your kids strapped to the bike, stroller, etc outside w/out supervision. These kids were hitting each other. Naughty.
Then we went over to the Museum district to get into the VanGogh, but we were 5 minutes too late....arrr. Next time for sure.
I think this should be the slogan for this recession.
Men playing giant chess.
Yup, that a girl mouse being overly affectionate to a boy mouse who is not having it. 'bitte, bitte'
Capioera in the street.
Buying silly souviners is lame. Buying local street art is cool. This is the bike art I purchased and the artist himself. So official.
If you're not already in love with this city, it gets better, they have a pirate bar!
This is the symbol of a very sad day in bikeland. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the flat tire necklace a girl was wearing who worked at the Cambridge Bike Shop in Central Sq, Cambridge. Super cool and looked just like this tire. I'd also like to point out that I will be going back there for no good reason next Boston trip because I didn't know that's where cute boys hang out/work until I tagged along when Tom had to pick up bike things last Boston trip. Can't believe I missed out on that for the 3 years I lived there....arrrr.
Sad day in bikeland part 2, but very good reason to always make sure you lock your bike. It's a lot sadder of a day when it's floating down the canal.
We also went on a night boat canal cruise where we learned a lot about the history of Amsterdam and what you can do in the canals, such as go kayaking.
Amsterdam is also a popular hen-do/stag-night location (bachelor and bachellorette). Clearly these ladies know how to have a good time. And since they were all mum+ age, i think it was like a Red Hat club, but the Dutch version. (dutch color is Orange due to the Earl of Orange, but the flag is red, white and blue - french flag sideways)
We were also able to witness a very rare event, which was people swimming across the canal from side to side. Our tour guide said that never in her 30+ years of living in Amsterdam had she ever seen swimmers.
This is a classic Amsterdam house/warehouse. The pole coming out from the house above the top window was used as a pull to load the goods. For this same reason the houses all lean a bit forwards so that the goods never stratched or damaged the front of the house. So it's not due to the slow sinking of Amsterdam, but actual planned architecture.
Here we are out in the bay. Old Dutch East India corporation boat and the cool new musuem/cafe that looks like a boat (the green bit)
While Amsterdam is lovely, i highly recommend the city take time to clean the street lamps - everyone one was covered in spiders, so much so that you would get huge shadows of spiders on the buildings. Yuck. Talk about phobias.
This is a painting in one of the many art galleries in Amsterdam of what it looks like when it snows. Pretty.
Our last morning heading back to the Next Door cafe....
In conclusion, I loved, loved, loved Amsterdam and Have added to the places to live list. I'd say it's like a European San Francisco, which is basically the best of both worlds, no? The good news is that it has lots of fashion companies there, so living and working there could be an actual possibility.
Next...romanitic Rhine River's castles!
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